[Undated]

Berkeley says the stimulus may be God; so does Descartes. I shall maintain there is truth in this and that amongst all the objects that any given hypothesis at any given moment asserts to be constantly conjoined there is always the element that is that aspect which ‘God’ presents. Thus if I say I see a table, I am stating that this is an empirical experience in which my hypothesis that certain elements are constantly conjoined—those elements in fact whose constant conjunction I have decided to call, ‘a table’—are again conjoined; furthermore, that amongst these elements, hardness, shape, etc., is an element that is ‘God’s’ contribution, a presenting in me the awareness of certain sensations. In this context I regard God, or Descartes’ evil spirit or Demon (in his first ‘Meditation’) as being interchangeable views of the same thing.